


Obliviate

by Redrikki



Series: Tango 'Verse [1]
Category: Dollhouse, Supernatural
Genre: Crossover, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Harry Potter References, Look At Your Life Look At Your Choices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-01
Packaged: 2017-12-16 19:36:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/865804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam paves a road with good intentions and some advice from Harry Potter.  After all, Hermione erased her parent's memories to protect them.  How is it any different if Sam does it to help Dean?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Obliviate

Sam sat at the table and read. Across the room, in the bed closest to the door, Dean slept, peacefully for a change, helped along by a little something in his drink. Sam was supposed to meet with Ruby later, but for now he was caught up in the drama of the Battle of Hogwarts. Molly Weasley was taking a page from _Aliens’_ Ripley and getting her maternal wrath on. Sam imagined her expression looking like his mother’s had when she drove the poltergeist out of the house. Family did that to you. Dying, killing, anger, responsibility, love; that’s what it was all about.

His cell rang and Sam answered it without looking up. Bellatrix was dead, Voldemort’s time was running out and Sam knew who was calling anyway. “Ruby.”

“Forget our little appointment, Sam?” Sarcasm and annoyance warred in her voice.

No, actually, he hadn’t. “Door’s open,” he told her and hung up. Harry was about to kill Voldemort and, if he read fast, Sam could get to it before Ruby showed up.

Ruby came in as Voldemort fell but hesitated at the threshold when she spotted Dean. It wasn’t fear. There were certain rules to their relationship and hiding it from Dean was one of them. “He wont wake up,” Sam assured her, but she still gave the bed wide berth on her way to the empty chair.

She sat slouched like Dean did, legs outstretched and ankles crossed. “That better be a damn good book,” she said, her eyes widening in outrage as Sam laid it on the table. “I can’t believe you ditched me for Harry freakin’ Potter.”

Sam rolled his eyes. It figured she’d take it personally. Going to hell for being a witch could really sour a girl on magic. “You ever actually read them?” Sam asked. “I used to love this series. A magical world were ghosts are friendly, bones heal overnight and everything’s just so simple. Troll?” –he raised an invisible wand– “ _Wingardium Leviosa_ ” –swish and flick– “knock it out. Bad guy? _Avada Kedavra_ ” –vicious slash– “ he’s dead. Bad memory? _Obliviate_ and you” –he dropped his hand to his lap– “and you forget.”

Ruby snorted. “Sounds like you’re confusing simple with easy. Look” – she leaned across the table, showing just a hint of cleavage– “are we gonna do something or did you just invite me in to talk about kiddy lit.”

Sam turned from what she was offering to study his sleeping brother. He looked different like that, younger maybe, and so open and vulnerable it made Sam’s heart clench and stomach drop. This was his brother, his responsibility and some days the weight of it felt like being buried alive. Had it felt like that for Dean growing up? If it had, Sam had never seen the strain. “I can’t keep doing this.”

“What? Again?” Anger propelled Ruby out of her chair like a bottle rocket. “We’ve been over this, Sam.” She glared at him, hip cocked and arms crossed, furious and defensive all at once. “Lilith. Demon apocalypse only you can stop. Ring any bells?” She was yelling now, in his face and raising her hand for a head-slap.

“I know,” Sam shouted back, catching her wrist and jumping up to loom. Across the room, Dean made a pained sound in his sleep as Ruby tried to back away. Sam dropped her hand like a hot rock. “I know,” he repeated, quieter this time. “I just. I can’t keep doing _this_.” He threw his arms wide, encompassing the tacky hotel room, the dirty laundry, the guns and the last of his family.“I just can’t.”

“So, what?” Ruby forced the words out past her anger like steam from a kettle. “You just quit? Stay here with him” –she shot a disgusted glare at the sleeping figure – “until the world ends? Is that the plan?”

Sam shook his head, but couldn’t meet her eyes. “I said some things. To him,” he tried to explain. “I didn’t mean them, not the way the came out. But they’re true.” Now he looked at her. “He went to hell for me and came back broken. Dean’s my responsibility but I can’t fix him, not and fight Lilith too.”

“Make up your mind, Sam,” Ruby snapped in annoyance. “What do you want?” Her face softened, her voice tired now, resigned to the inevitable. “Just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.”

She would too. She was dependable like that, like Dean used to be. “I want–” Sam broke off. That wasn’t right. Want was such a childish word. “I _need_ for him to be alright. To be safe. To forget about hell, this life” – He swallowed. This was the hardest part.– “me. Can you do that?”

Ruby stared at him for a long moment then pivoted to look at Dean. They stood there for a moment, side by side, gazing down at the sleeping man as a slow cat-with-a-canary smile crept across Ruby’s face. “I can do it.”

There was something dark and nasty lurking behind that smile, but Sam didn’t let himself see it. He needed this to work. Hermione had _obliviated_ her parents and sent them off, clueless and safe, to Australia while she helped Harry defeat Voldemort and it was all happy families in the end. This would work. Sam wanted, needed, it to and Ruby would make it happen. He didn’t ask how and she didn’t tell and, in retrospect, Sam suspected that was his first mistake.


End file.
